Whew! The hostage drama in the U.S. Capitol ended, with the nation's creditworthiness intact and some Republicans defiant to the end. We'll start with them, but they are just a few of the doers of dubious deeds this week.

Herewith, the awards:

WE’RE STILL HOLDING OUR BREATH AND WE’RE NOT GONNA STOP UNTIL WE GET OUR WAY!!!

When Congress approved the bipartisan funding measure that staved off the nation’s first-ever default and reopened the government, 144 Republicans in the U.S. House and 18 in the U.S. Senate voted no.

BECAUSE IT’S SO IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO KNOW ABOUT A LAW THAT ISN’T GOING TO BE ENFORCED

The Corbett administration is spending another $1 million to “educate” voters that they will be asked to show government-approved ID at the polls this November, even though a court has ruled that the ID is not required to vote in this election.

UPON FURTHER CONSIDERATION, JUDGE NAUHAUS SENTENCES YOU TO A DAY SPENT IN THE STOCKS, WITH PASSERSBY GIVEN FRUIT SUITABLE FOR THROWING

Convicted former Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin really didn’t want to have to write apology letters to every judge in the state, on the back of a photograph of her in handcuffs, so she sought and won a temporary court order barring the sentence imposed by Judge Lester Nauhaus.

ACROSS THE STATE, SCHOOLS ARE UNBOLTING THEIR PEDESTAL GRINDERS AS WE SPEAK

A state court ruled that a high school student who lost part of a finger in a shop class accident cannot sue his school district for the injury. Thanks to an arcane provision in state law, the case turned on the fact that the pedestal grinder used by the injured student was not bolted to the shop room floor.

TO ARMS, PATRIOTS!! A GOVERNMENT THAT CAN CHARGE YOU TO KEEP ROADKILL IS A GOVERNMENT THAT CAN DO ANYTHING!

Someone using the name Red Hood posted an ad on Craigslist entitled, "Looking for real life superheroes." Issuing a call to fight decay and crime in Harrisburg, the ad said “Lets help each other to watch over the ones who can’t."

WELL, THAT MEANING OF THE SLANG TERM “SANTORUM” IS A LOT MORE POLITE THAN THE ONE YOU FIND ON GOOGLE

As my colleague John Micek noted this week, “In Republican circles, the easiest way to conjure memories of a dire [election] butt-kicking is to utter the words, ‘Santorum’ and ‘2006’ in close proximity to each other.”

IF A SEVERED HORSE HEAD SUDDENLY MATERIALIZES ON CORBETT’S BED, YOU’LL KNOW WHERE IT CAME FROM

More, from Mr. Micek: “Montgomery County Commissioner Bruce Castor, who briefly flirted with a challenge earlier this year, tells the AP this weekend that there's still discussion among party members about mounting a primary challenge to Corbett.”

HUH. AND HERE WE THOUGHT THOSE HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY WERE JUST RICH PEOPLE EXERCISING THEIR RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH

Castor said the talk about another Republican taking on Corbett is “going absolutely nowhere because anybody who potentially would be a candidate does not want to run into the financial buzz-saw that they would run into in a primary against Tom Corbett.”